Rajbiraj, May 28

The aim to declare Saptari district an Open Defecation Free zone by 2016 is almost sure to miss the deadline as Rajbiraj Municipality has not done any homework for the same as of yet.

Executive Officer at Rajbiraj municipality office, Bishnu Prasad Gurung, said the district would most probably fail to bag the ODF status within the set deadline due to lack of funds at the municipality office.

Prafulla Kumar Shrestha, information officer at the municipality office, said they had been organising various programmes in ward number 2, 6, 7, 8, and 10 of the municipality for the last four years in a bid to declare the district an ODF zone. He informed that among 6,718 households in the municipality, 13.52 percent has yet to build toilets in their homes.

Meanwhile, officials of the district said a budget of Rs 20 million had already been spent in a bid to declare the district an ODF zone.